


The Lords of the Hills

by thomasp3864



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Gen, Historical, Peasants' Revolt, Politics, Rebellion, Revolt, Revolution, The Eyrie (ASoIaF), The Vale of Arryn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:34:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26761450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thomasp3864/pseuds/thomasp3864
Summary: A brief overview of an OC noble house that may be used in later works.  Covers all necesary to understand their presance in later works, and even to use them as a player in your own fiction.
Relationships: None
Kudos: 2
Collections: The Great Lesser Lords of Westeros: a Collection of Short Stories and the like.





	The Lords of the Hills

**Author's Note:**

> This work is part of a collection of short things like this. See the collection URL in the endnote.

The lands of Heldstrong are held by house Rien. House Rien lead the first, and only, successful rebellion against the eyre and house Arryn. House Rien originated as hilltribes, and their castle, Heldstrong, contains one of the last Weirwood trees in the south. When the Andals first arrived in The Vale, they did not actually wipe out the First Men. They left some, who went on the become the hill tribes.  
The hill tribes have never loved the Andals who settled here, especially the Arryns who ruled the Vale. The Condor tribe was the most successful. Their leader, and the leader of the Condor Revolt, Guenstrym, lead the Condor Tribe to be the only army the ever successfully take the Eyre. The Condor tribe had a tradition of the chieftens riding Condors. The Condors worshiped the old gods, and at this time, the Faith Militant was lead by the second son of the lord of the vale at the time, and had been leading campaigns against the hill tribes that worshiped the old gods.  
The faith militant was able to cut down most of the few remaining Weirwoods in the region. Hill Tribesmen from all over the vale were pushed further and further into the mountains, as the knights of the Vale attacked Hill Tribe villages. The Hilltribesmen began to flee further and further into the mountains.  
The Condor Tribe, at this time, controlled one of the most mountainous areas of the Vale. This area of the Vale was just a few miles north of the Eyre and eventually the knights found themselves up against mountains that they thought to be impassable, but the hill tribes, used to this terrain, were able to pass with ease. These campaigns caused the Condors numbers to swell, and Guenstrym’s father Weastruim, an old man, saw the large number of people forced out by the Vale saw it as wise to remain hidden.  
Guenstrym was very different from his father. While his father barely rode the condors, Guenstrym was learning to ride these birds when he was only 7. When his father died, Guenstrym was only a teenager, as Guenstrym was born late in Weastruim’s life. In the Condor hill tribe, succession was ruled by primogeniture, but the only 18 year old Guenstrym was worried about his family being overthrown, as his father’s decision to remain where they are had been unpopular.  
Guenstrym reasoned that since the size of the Condor tribe had ballooned to nearly 100,000 due to people fleeing the campaigns of the knights and the Faith Militant, he probably had enough people to be able to take The Eyre. Guenstrym also knew that the First Men of The Vale hated the rulers of the Vale for their near genocidal treatment of the Hill Tribes. The decision on whether to go to war with the Vale had been a major point of disagreement between Weastruim and his son, and now that a beligerant teanager was in charge of the largest force in The Vale, there was bound to be a war.

Upon hearing of the death of his father, Guenstrym thought for a moment, and then said “Ready my condor, we are going to war”. Later that day, Guenstrym gave a speach about the Arryn atrocities, and told the Condors to “prepare for revolution”. Guenstrym actually did not want to completely overthrow House Arryn and take over the Vale. He knew that the Vale was way too big for a man whose authority mainly comes from having a flying mount.  
Over the next few months, Guenstrym appointed Anstrise to lead the army, and made plans to prepare for war. Origianally, Guenstrym had wanted to take The Bloody Gate, but Anstrise, well versed in the history of the Vale, pointed out that marching into there would be suicide. “And besides,” Anstrise pointed out while they were planning, “We’re already closer to the Eyre than the Bloody Gate.  
In the second month of preparation for the conflict to come, one of the leaders of the one of the tribes decimated by the combined forces of Lord Arryn’s knights and the faith militant, Denyil, counseled Guenstrym to send spied into the Eyre to gain a picture of the castle’s strengths and weaknesses. Guenstrym saw this as great advice, and sent a number of spies into the Eyre to work as cooks, maids, or anything, and send back information about the structure of the Eyre, and any potential weaknesses.  
While many of the spies sent back lots of useful information, none were more important than Salym, who after being caught sending back information about the Moondoor to Guenstrym, was thrown in a sky cell. Salym was able to smuggle in a few ravens and writing supplies though, and was the main architect of the final plan to take the Eyre. In this Skycell, Salym saw a huge vulnerability. As a boy, Salym had learned how to climb a sheer cliff; all members of the Silver Spike tribe learned how to while young, since their homeland was covered in sheer cliffs that it was important to navigate.  
Since the sky cells were only designed to protect against a prisoner trying to escape, the only real protection against someone using them to enter the castle was a lock on the enterances, a lock that could be broken with a decent swing of pretty much any bladed weapon. When locked away, Salym sent a raven to inform Guenstrym of his plan.  
Salym’s plan was to have the surviving silver spikes train the Condor army in the arts of rockclimbing. Salym saw the skycells as the main vulnerability of the Eyre to an invasion. In his letter Salym wrote about how an army invading the Eyre from beyond the Bloody Gate, if it could climb the walls of the mountain upon which the castle is built, could make camp in the skycells, and strike up through the skycells.  
Salym was eventually tortured and killed by the jailer Stristime, and Salym refused to tell Stristime any information, not even giving Guenstrym’s name, or that he was from a hilltribe, or even an internal enemy. When word of this reached Guenstrym by raven from his other spies, he felt the need to honor Salym.  
Partially to honor Salym, and partially because it was just a good idea, Guenstrym decided that the plans for the invasion of the Eyre would be based on Salym’s letter. When Anstrise was informed of this plan, he warned Guenstrym that the skycells would make a very weak foothold. The condors would have to fight with their backs to a cliff. When Guenstrym insisted, Anstrise said “I would advise a small force of elite fighters, we would need to move quickly and get past the dungeons in order to be able to take it”. Guenstrym agreed. It did make sense that a small force would be able to make it up the mountain much more easily than a large one.  
A few months after preparations had began, it was time to march on the Eyre. Having learned the art of rock climbing personally from the last Chieftain of the Silver Spikes, Salvstrein, Guenstrym personally lead the Condor army, 20,000 strong, to camp within sight of the Eyre. There he waited for 2 nights, and then, leaving Anstrise in charge, sent Salvstrein, and 18 other Silver Spikes up the face of the cliffs of The Eyre, as he rode his condor up into the sky cell, and helped them up once he reached the skycell.  
After resting there, Guenstrym sent his Silver Spikes to try to storm the castle. They failed misrably, and ended up being all captured and brought before the Lord of the Vale. The skycell that Guenstrym was camped in with his condor was close to the throne room.  
When the Lord of the Vale saw Salvstrein brought before him, Lord Arryn decided that Salvstrein would be the first to be thrown out the moondoor to his doom. From the skycell, Guenstrym saw the moondoor open. Guenstrym realised that their attempt had failed. He felt responsible for it. He had put Salvstrein in harm’s way. Guenstrym felt like he had failed his people, and the hill tribes, the first men of the vale, as a whole. Maybe his father was right, Guenstrym contemplated.  
Then Guenstrym remembered Salym’s letter regarding the moondoor, how Salym had mentioned that any potential exit is also a potential enterence if you can do the right things. Salym had written “I don’t know how, but if you could get an army up through it, it leads directly to the throne room, and more importantly, Lord Arryn.” Guenstrym determined that he had to do something, and if he could just get to that moondoor…  
Guenstrym remembered the condor. Guenstrym grabbed his bow, his weapon of choice, drew it, and rode that condor to the moondoor. Guenstrym told the condor to return to the camp, and then lept up through the moondoor and landed on the floor of the throneroom.  
Guenstrym shot with the arrows, first the captors of Salvstrein, and then Guenstrym and Salvstrein together took care of the captors of the other 18 men. The Silver Spikes joined in as they were freed, storming the castle, and throwing open the gates as Guenstrym dictated terms to Lord Arryn

As the condor flew back to camp, Anstrise feared for Guenstrym. Anstrise knew how much Guenstrym loved his condor. Throughout all those months of preparation, Guenstrym had seldom let it leave his side. Throughout the day, Anstrise had been worried for Guenstrym’s life, and the condor’s return confirmed the worst of them. Hoping Guenstrym had only been captured, Anstriese determined that the 20,000 men he commanded would head for the Eyre, circumventing the Bloody Gate, and entering the path up the mountain. 

Meanwhile, Guenstrym had trouble negotiating with Lord Arryn. The Lord refused to even talk, talking over Guenstrym, whenever he tried to offer terms, and just refusing to listen to Guenstrym. Arryn reasoned that with only 19 men with him, Guenstrym was, despite having taken the Eyre, not really a credible threat to him. Arryn was fine with Guenstrym trying to occupy the Eyre. Reinforcements would arrive soon, Arryn reasured himself, as he stubbornly refused to talk.

As Anstrise and the Condor army marched with Guenstrym’s mount perched on Anstrise’s shoulder up the trail to the Eyre, Anstrise grew worried. Was this a trap? As he neared the Eyre, he grew more and more nervous. They were pretty close now. Where were the guards firing at them? As they drew closer, Anstrise saw that the gates were open. As he drew ever closer, Anstrise, upon seeing Salvstrein, felt a little relieved, although he was still a little suspicious, had Salvstrein betrayed Guenstrym for Lord Arryn?  
When Salvstrein, then guarding the door, saw Anstrise marching with the rest of Guenstrym’s army, he called out. Salvstrein informed them that Guenstrym had Lord Arryn at his mercy, and that Salvstrein was just about to send one of the Silver Spikes to request that the army march on the Eyre to add credibility to the threat to Lord Arryn.

Lord Arryn agreed to negotiate with Guenstrym when the Condor army began to enter the throne room. As Guenstrym dictated his terms, the lord realised how reasonable they were. There was of course the obvious ones like stop doing all of that stuff to the hill people, and stop cutting down the Weirwoods, but surprisingly to Lord Arryn, Guenstrym did not ask for The Vale, just a part of it. Guenstrym asked only to be made lord of a region that he called “The Hills”. This region consisted of the Condor lands, as well as the lands of most of the tribes that had joined them since they were pushed off of their territory. Guenstrym also demanded a certain amount of autonomy for the hilltribes, even those whom he was not the lord of. In return, Guenstrym would swear fealty to the Lords of the Vale. Lord Arryn even agreed to grant Guenstrym one extra concession: the right to build his castle wherever he wanted in his new lands, and no constraints on anything about it.

Granted the title of Lord of the Hills, Guenstrym took a family name, Rien, and built his castle. As a worshiper of the old gods, Guenstrym decided to build it in the valley that was at the centre of the Condor Tribe’s traditions. This site was chosen not only due to it’s significance to the Condors, but also because it was the site of the only remaining Weirwood in the Vale.

When Knights are created in the lands of House Rien, alternate words are spoken under the Weirwood.  
The tournaments held here, usually at Held usually have some strange twist. They sometimes will begin with the lord swooping down on a condor, sometimes the lord will decide to have a male maiden fair, and sometimes, just for shits and giggles, the maiden fair is a knight who appoints themselves one of the champions.  
House Rien’s leader has usually been a knight, the family members tend to give each other knighthoods, and tend to show up at the last minute banging on the doors of the skycells demanding to take part, especially when nobody is held in any of them, at any tournament in The Eyre, buying a horse on-site, and then selling it back at the end. When tournaments take place in most castles in fact, they will often camp unnoticed on some inaccessible rooftop and then come down to register at the last minute.  
In Rien tournaments, bows are typically legal, and there is often an option to challenge the opponent to combat archery, which they use to take the title. In fact, they usually don’t even require knighthood as an entry requirement, and almost always allow a competition for knighthood. They will usually compete in other tournaments though.

Members of house Rien tend not to care much for authority, except that of the Vale, who, since they were humbled before Guenstrym, have had much respect for the wishes of the house, and as such, a certain prince was given the death penalty after comitting a capital offense in a member’s view. Ser Geundwænœ Rien, who shot him from condorback with a bow.  
To say that Rien is subservient to house Arryn would be an oversimplification, instead, their relationship is built upon mutual obligation, and house Rien actually enjoys a priveledged status, Arryn will rush to defend them, as they are obligated to, and House Rien does act as the Vale’s air force. When House Rien is in a war, the entire rulebook changes. When part of an army is mounted on large birds, balconies become a weakness, even if too high for archers. If in the days of dragons a rebellion such as the Rebellion of the Eightth were to have any success, then they needed Targaryen or house Rien on their side. After the days of dragons, the influence of House Rien only grew as they were able to expand their claim and become even more influential within the Vale, though they were unable to make their presence felt outside of it due to a poor job when it came to negotiating marriages of power.

**Author's Note:**

> Collection URL: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/LesserGreatLordsofWesteros
> 
> Please comment any feelings or constructive criticisms you have for the author and thanks for reading to the end.


End file.
